Author Topic: New PDF editor: FlexiPDF from SoftMaker (Read 32,704 times)

mwb1100 · « **on:** November 09, 2016, 10:07 PM »

Looks like there's a new entry in the PDF editor market: FlexiPDf from SoftMaker, who are responsible for the SoftMaker Office Suite and some font collections.

- http://www.softmaker.com/en/flexipdf

I haven't tried the software so can't give any kind of review.

Introductory price is $60 (or €60) for the Standard version, $80 (or €80) for the Professional version. Webpage says those are introductory prices. I have no idea how long they might be valid for or what the pricing might be after the 'introduction'.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 09, 2016, 10:11 PM »

Quote from: mwb1100 on November 09, 2016, 10:07 PM

Looks like there's a new entry in the PDF editor market: FlexiPDf from SoftMaker, who are responsible for the SoftMaker Office Suite and some font collections.

- http://www.softmaker.com/en/flexipdf

I haven't tried the software so can't give any kind of review.

Introductory price is $60 (or €60) for the Standard version, $80 (or €80) for the Professional version. Webpage says those are introductory prices. I have no idea how long they might be valid for or what the pricing might be after the 'introduction'.

If they can't be bothered actually doing currency conversions (and ripping off those who pay in EUR)...then I wouldn't even entertain them.

tomos · « **Reply #2 on:** November 09, 2016, 10:24 PM »

Quote from: Stephen66515 on November 09, 2016, 10:11 PM

If they can't be bothered actually doing currency conversions (and ripping off those who pay in EUR)...then I wouldn't even entertain them.

something I intensely dislike as well, but, in fairness there's very few that do (actual currency conversions).
If I can, when paying, I'll try and pay in US$ to see if it works out cheaper.

Add to that, there's very little between the two at the moment.

EDIT// the Euro price includes 19% VAT. Dont know if they charge that to all customers (? they a German company & I'm in Germany)

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 09, 2016, 10:36 PM »

Quote from: tomos on November 09, 2016, 10:24 PM

Quote from: Stephen66515 on November 09, 2016, 10:11 PM
If they can't be bothered actually doing currency conversions (and ripping off those who pay in EUR)...then I wouldn't even entertain them.

something I intensely dislike as well, but, in fairness there's very few that do (actual currency conversions).
If I can, when paying, I'll try and pay in US$ to see if it works out cheaper.

Add to that, there's very little between the two at the moment.

EDIT// the Euro price includes 19% VAT. Dont know if they charge that to all customers (? they a German company & I'm in Germany)

Paying in EUR would mean you pay 6EUR more than you would if you paid in USD - Yeah, in fairness it's not THAT much, but..in reality, there is 0 need for it when there are a plethora of payment modules that just do the price for you (or if you set a single currency, and have Paypal as your provider...they do the work for you) - there is really no excuse - I'd understand it if they had to keep changing it manually due to fluctuating rates..but we all know this is not the case.

In regards to your edit, they are charging me 20% tax (as per UK rates)
included VAT (20%): £ 11.70
included VAT (19%): £ 0.00

The total for Pro: £70.20 ($87.20)

I think the moral of the story is....if you want it...find somebody in the USA to buy it for you...or be prepared to pay more than your american counterpart.

tomos · « **Reply #4 on:** November 09, 2016, 10:50 PM »

Quote from: Stephen66515 on November 09, 2016, 10:36 PM

I think the moral of the story is....if you want it...find somebody in the USA to buy it for you...or be prepared to pay more than your american counterpart.

Hmm, 80€ here with tax.
I have great respect for companies that dont screw us in Euros (and you in Sterling even more).
But as said, they're few and far between unfortunately.
FWIW, this is tiddlywinks compared to how Adobe will screw you due to your location [although they may have gotten better that way since they only rent their software]. I guess I've gotten resigned to this level of screw :-/

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 09, 2016, 10:55 PM »

Quote from: tomos on November 09, 2016, 10:50 PM

Quote from: Stephen66515 on November 09, 2016, 10:36 PM
I think the moral of the story is....if you want it...find somebody in the USA to buy it for you...or be prepared to pay more than your american counterpart.

Hmm, 80€ here with tax.
I have great respect for companies that dont screw us in Euros (and you in Sterling even more).
But as said, they're few and far between unfortunately.
FWIW, this is tiddlywinks compared to how Adobe will screw you due to your location [although they may have gotten better that way since they only rent their software]. I guess I've gotten resigned to this level of screw :-/

I don't really mind it when they are physical products which are subject to import tax and other such things, but it makes 0% sense when it's a digital product which costs them no more/less, regardless of your location

4wd · « **Reply #6 on:** November 09, 2016, 11:33 PM »

Personally try to avoid letting PayPal/Amazon/etc do any sort of currency conversion, they're worse than my bank when it comes to that.

Curt · « **Reply #7 on:** November 10, 2016, 12:22 AM »

Quote from: inside the FlexiPDF application

© SoftMaker Software GmbH, Iceni Technology Ltd.

^ So, FlexiPDF is a version of Iceni Infix Pdf Editor - my favourite PDF text editor!

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=35507.msg332043

Quote from: Bits du Jour

Infix Pro PDF Editor
35% Off ~~$198.75~~ USD
Discount: -$69.56 USD
$129.19 USD (Bits du Jour only) http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/infix-pro-pdf-editor will at first show outdated $103 price, but then handle new $129 price

Quote from: Iceni

Buy Infix Now
€89 +VAT Per Year
€8.99 +VAT Per Month

Unlimited use of TransPDF.com

At $80 SoftMaker FlexiPDF's price might seem quite a better price than the original's. However, this may include less features - the use of TransPDF.com is certainly one - but I have not studied the text, to figure out exactly what is different. Maybe one should just write and ask them...

Well, I am pleased SoftMaker has taken up this little gem; I see this as a promise it won't be obsolete in the near future.

SoftMaker · « **Reply #8 on:** December 07, 2016, 10:36 AM »

I would like to take this opportunity to clean up some misunderstandings about how SoftMaker's prices are calculated.

FlexiPDF 2017 costs either EUR 79.95 or US$ 79.95.

If you are a customer in the U.S., you pay US$ 79.95. We pay our income tax on that, and that's it. In Canada, same thing, with the price dynamically converted to Canadian Dollars.

If you are in the European Union, things become much more difficult for us. The EUR 79.95 we charge to European customers contain value-added tax. If you live in Germany, we pay 19% of that EUR 79.95 to the German tax offices, if you are in the UK, we pay 20% to the UK revenue service etc. We have to declare value-added taxes in every single member country of the European Union.

So, if you as a UK customer paid us EUR 79.95 (our shop converts it dynamically, to the minute, to GBP), more than 13 euros goes straight back to your own revenue service. Our income on that purchase is around EUR 66.50. And this LESS than what we earn from a U.S. customer, for whom we don't have to pay VAT.

Now before American customers complain that THEY have to pay more, please consider that currency exchange rates fluctuate, and we can't adjust prices every day.

If you don't like the EU VAT regime, we are the wrong place to complain about.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker

tomos · « **Reply #9 on:** December 07, 2016, 11:10 AM »

^ Thanks Martin for clearing that up

Quote from: SoftMaker on December 07, 2016, 10:36 AM

If you don't like the EU VAT regime, we are the wrong place to complain about.

I can understand you getting defensive about it, but Softmaker were logically the place to start. At least we now know how the system works, thanks to your detailed post

I dont envy anyone having to deal with all those different sales taxes...

tomos · « **Reply #10 on:** December 15, 2016, 10:39 PM »

For anyone who might want to check out FlexiPDF, there is (currently) a free basic version for download (+ a donation to charity from Softmaker with each download).
See here for details
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=43282.msg404699#msg404699

(Naturally they have a trial of the full/non-basic programme at the main Softmaker site)

Joe Hone · « **Reply #11 on:** January 17, 2017, 04:22 PM »

According to this security researcher, the executable installers for SoftMaker FlexiPDF suffer from a dll hijacking vulnerability:

https://packetstormsecurity.com/files/140514/SoftMaker-FlexiPDF-DLL-Hijacking.html

Cloq · « **Reply #12 on:** February 04, 2017, 01:44 PM »

I am hoping FlexiPDF will have a portable version of these years.

I quite like how the Softmaker Office is portable.

Curt · « **Reply #13 on:** February 04, 2017, 05:44 PM »

Quote from: Cloq on February 04, 2017, 01:44 PM

hoping FlexiPDF will have a portable version

Can the virtual feature "Print to PDF" even be possible in a portable version?
Also, one reason the program is easy to use is because it is part of the context menu.

I am just trying to say that I think it never will be portable.

Cloq · « **Reply #14 on:** February 05, 2017, 01:04 AM »

Quote from: Curt on February 04, 2017, 05:44 PM

Quote from: Cloq on February 04, 2017, 01:44 PM
hoping FlexiPDF will have a portable version

Can the virtual feature "Print to PDF" even be possible in a portable version?
Also, one reason the program is easy to use is because it is part of the context menu.

I am just trying to say that I think it never will be portable.

Hm.. I am assuming print to pdf is a "driver", so when you start the program for the first time, it could ask the user if the user would like a pdf printer installed on the machine. Adding to context menu (assuming you mean right click menu) is a registry key, Winrar and 7zip do that on demand, add to context menu.

Basically hoping for a new breed of portable apps, especially the way Win10 is shaping up.

Curt · « **Reply #15 on:** February 05, 2017, 08:35 AM »

^ I guess you can have portability of a kind, if you say No to "Do you want to install the driver" etcetera, but I have of course not tested if you can do this with PlexiPdf. Being portable does normally not include leaving behind a driver and some context menu content, when removed. We would all shout this is not how portability should be done!

The license is for 3 PCs, so I guess that alone makes it difficult to give meaning to portability.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #16 on:** February 06, 2017, 07:24 PM »

Quote from: Curt on February 05, 2017, 08:35 AM

The license is for 3 PCs, so I guess that alone makes it difficult to give meaning to portability.

I guess they don't believe in carrying things too far.

stewcam · « **Reply #17 on:** October 07, 2017, 01:37 AM »

Ashampoo PDF Pro seems to be a rebadged version of FlexiPDF. You can get it today with 71% off the usual price: Ashampoo 18th anniversary sale.

Curt · « **Reply #18 on:** October 07, 2017, 10:21 PM »

$19.99 https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/0274/office-software/pdf-pro for 10 more days.

Yes, it clearly is a renamed version of FlexiPdf Pro. But the price!!! If one is in need of a pdf editor and/or a virtual print-to-pdf, this is it. $20? I can't believe it! I am already using the $80 SoftMaker twin version, and the original (INfix Pro 6) is $129.19 USD at Bits du Jour's, and they are all identical - so I am able to say this $20 offer is a bargain!

stewcam · « **Reply #19 on:** October 08, 2017, 12:30 AM »

Hey, Curt. I thought $24.99 was an outstanding price - kudos to you for finding an even better deal

Curt · « **Reply #20 on:** October 08, 2017, 03:29 PM »

^thank you, stewcam. Good to see you back after all this time. 4 years of silence? I am impressed, because I find it hard to keep quiet for 4 days!

I am interested in the pdf editor/virtual printer subject, because I have recommended the INfix Editor Pro here several times during the years (first time was in May 2009: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=18252.0). ; INfix 6 is the original to FlexiPdf and Softmaker Pdf Editor. I have not tested the 'new' INfix 7, but I have license keys for versions 3, 4, 5 and 6. I should say that INfix Pro eight years ago was $300

The cheapest price for the new version 7 is $89 PER YEAR, (or $89 once, and then updated for 1 year only), so I am very interested in these cheaper Ashampoo/SoftMaker versions of the same program - because I don't need INfix's expensive translation service.

tomos · « **Reply #21 on:** October 13, 2017, 09:26 AM »

I'm looking at this again because Softmaker has an offer this weekend on FlexiPDF**

Quote from: Curt on October 07, 2017, 10:21 PM

$19.99 https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/0274/office-software/pdf-pro for 10 more days.

Yes, it clearly is a renamed version of FlexiPdf Pro.

initially I thought it was the only basic FlexiPDF version - but I see Ashampoo has "Find and replace across documents" which only the Pro FlexiPDF has
See
Ashampoo PDF Pro features
and
FlexiPDF feature comparision page

FWIW FlexiPDF coupon code is
flexioffer
=>
and prices in Euroworld are 25 & 35 euro respectively

mwb1100 · « **Reply #22 on:** October 13, 2017, 07:10 PM »

FlexPDF is supposed to support export to MS word (though surprisingly it's not in the Ashampoo feature checklist - it is mentioned in the Overview tab).

Has anyone tried this feature of Ashampoo PDF Pro/Softmaker FlexPDF?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #23 on:** October 13, 2017, 11:21 PM »

I don't see an export to Word option in FlexiPDF Pro v1.06 Win.

The only export option I am offered is HTML3. That output a 28 page .pdf document, with fairly complex formatting, to HTML which Word 2016 brought in looking pretty much the same as the original.

OTOH Word 2016 inhaled the original .pdf and produced perfectly good results without FlexiPDF as an intermediary.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #24 on:** October 14, 2017, 12:10 AM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on October 13, 2017, 11:21 PM

OTOH Word 2016 inhaled the original .pdf and produced perfectly good results without FlexiPDF as an intermediary.

Well son-of-a... I'm still on Word 2013, but it imports PDFs, too. I had no idea.

I don't have to convert PDFs to Word often, and the last time I did it involved trying out some software that installed some unwanted crap alongside - I hope I remember that Word already handles this the next time the need rolls around.

Thanks!